


On My Terms

by SleepyOwl (Indigofingers)



Series: Shots [5]
Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Banter, Blood, Caring, Conversations, Crime Fighting, Detectives, Fist Fights, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Inaccuracies probably, Injury, Killing, Law Enforcement, Partnership, Police, Punching, Sarcasm, Shooting Guns, Teasing, Whump, it happens in this job
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-10-24 19:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17710550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indigofingers/pseuds/SleepyOwl
Summary: If they keep insisting that she talk about it, fine, but they'll do it on her terms.





	1. Not Your First Time

“So uh, have you talked to anyone?”

Evie looked up from the files spread and stacked around her on the floor, the pen in her hand tapping absently against a page. “Talked to anyone about what?” She gestured to the only vacant spot near her, but Adam shook his head, choosing instead to lean against the door of the small meeting room. “People have been dropping by to ask me how it’s going, and I keep telling them it won’t go any faster just because they keep asking.”

Adam snorted, a sympathetic smile appearing and disappearing too quickly. “No, I mean, uh, about killing that guy today.”

“Oh sure, I had to go through all the paperwork, same as anybody else.”

Adam with his arms folded was about as intimidating as a teddy bear, but Evie chose not to mention it. “Come on, you know what I’m saying. I know you’re not a cop, but, shouldn’t you talk to someone? First time I ever shot someone everybody pestered me about seeing psych so much that I wanted to punch something. I know now that it’s smart. You can’t just say you’re fine and have it magically be true.”

Evie tilted her head to peer up at him sideways. “So are you asking me if I’m fine or offering to talk?”

“I’m asking if you talked to anyone, but clearly you haven’t.” Adam always lost patience with her faster than any of the others. She knew that keeping his temper would come with time and ignored his tone.

“Well, I’m fine, I don’t need to talk and I really should get back to this.”

“This wasn’t your first time.” Adam didn’t say it like a question and Evie knew it wasn’t one in disguise, either. He wasn’t looking for confirmation. So what was he looking for?

“It wasn’t,” Evie acknowledged, waiting for him to get to the point.

Adam finally gave in and slid down to sit in the available floorspace near the door. “Still.”

Evie went back to perusing the file in front of her, knowing that Adam’s short attention span wouldn’t let him stew for too long over the questions he wanted to ask. She wasn’t going to prompt him. If he wanted to know something, he could formulate the question himself.

“You’re acting like nothing happened.”

“No, I’m acting like we’re in the middle of a case and I’ve got a lot of files to get through.”

“You shot someone and he died. That doesn’t bother you at all?”

“I’m not gonna pull the “no-choice” card, because that’s complete bull. But yeah, he was about to kill someone, so I made the choice to shoot him first. It was the right call.” Evie looked up long enough to catch Adam in a hard gaze. “And just because it was the right call doesn’t mean I was happy about it, but I stand by it.” She rubbed at her face and closed the file in front of her, tossing it onto a stack before reaching for another. “So no, I’m not bothered because I believe in the choice I made.”

“You know, if it were me, you’d be telling me to talk to someone.”

“How many people have you killed, Adam?” Evie’s tone was sharp. “You are still very new to this whole thing and you should be talking to someone when you make a kill. Because it doesn’t actually happen that often. You’ll shoot a lot of people but most of them won’t die because of it. When it happens, it’s important to process it in a healthy manner.”

“Right, and that’s what you’re doing now, is it?”

“I have killed a lot of people. I know how to process it.”

“How many?” Adam’s eyes, usually soft, were piercing as he asked the question. “How many is a lot?”

Evie shook her head. “I am not going to continue this conversation, not now.”

“Why not?”

“Because we’re both getting angry, and when I tell people that I trust about my past, I don’t do it in anger.” Evie opened the new file and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. Adam was doing the same thing, she could hear it. 

“You treat me like I’m some child who can’t handle hard truths, but we do the same thing, Evie.” Adam’s voice was softer now, less insistent. “I’m not going to freak out because you tell me some horrible secret. Or any secret. Or anything.”

Evie sighed again, suddenly so tired. “I know you’re not. But, Adam,” Evie looked up to see him avoiding her eyes, “most of my secrets are horrible. I’m not afraid to tell you, any of you. It’s just that you don’t need to know. My past is my own burden and I’ve gotten comfortable carrying it.”

“You can share it if you need to, you know.”

Evie half-smiled. “I know.”

“But you won’t,” Adam said, finally looking back at her. “You don’t believe you need to.”

Evie didn’t falter. “I don’t,” she agreed, her soft tone echoing his. “You have to accept that.”

He half-smiled too. “I guess I do. But I’m not gonna stop worrying about you like I have been. It’s what I do for the people I care about, okay?”

“Okay,” she smiled, fully. “And I’m gonna keep complaining. Status quo, right?”

“Right.” Adam knocked on the door a couple times and left.

Evie dropped her smile as soon as he was gone. It wasn’t a lie; she didn’t feel like she needed to share her burdens or her secrets if it wasn’t going to help anyone. Helping herself didn’t count. Unless lives were on the line, nobody benefited from knowing who she had been and what she had done.

It wasn’t a lie. Most of her secrets were horrible.

—

Evie dropped the heavy stack of files into Chaucer’s waiting hands with no small amount of satisfaction. “When are they going to invent technology to keep files in digital warehouses and use holograms to read them all?”

Chaucer frowned disapprovingly before moving into the vault. His voice echoed back to her from inside. “That probably already exists somewhere, but it’s perfectly respectable to do it the old-fashioned way.” His face popped back into view, one hand adjusting his spectacles as he peered at her owlishly. “You want to read your books as holograms, too?”

Shuddering, Evie folded her arms. “No way, that’s just going too far. I love turning the pages.”

With a nod of his head, Chaucer disappeared again. “I rest my case.”

Evie smiled fondly to herself. Chaucer always got huffy when anybody mentioned digitizing over physical copies of information. She was half-tempted to mention that physical files could easily be lost, stolen or destroyed, but Chaucer wasn’t above holding grudges and Evie didn’t feel like being on his bad side. She held her tongue.

Chaucer reappeared finally with a single file in hand. “Here’s the full list of drugs currently being regulated on the streets as well as all the bigger dealers and anybody else I thought was important to mention.”

“Thanks. And you’re right, real is better than hologram.”

“Don’t patronize me, eaglet. Get back to work.” Chaucer’s gruff tone was contradicted by the pat he left on her head. Evie bit back a grin and left.

—

Adam had his head resting on his folded arms as he slouched at his desk watching Evie fold sticky notes into paper swans. “Teach me,” he said for the third time in an hour. When Evie didn’t respond, he shuffled in place, rearranging his limbs before settling down again. “C’mon, we’re both benched and not allowed to go anywhere. Teach me how to do that.”

Evie didn’t even look at him while she answered. “You’ve been watching me this whole time. Why didn’t you start to do what I did? Do I have to talk you through it?”

“You sound like MB, all bored and superior.”

“I do not. She does it better.”

“That’s true.” Adam lifted his head and picked up his own sticky note. “Start again, I’ll follow this time.”

“Nah, I’m done.”

“Come on!”

Footsteps on the stairs made them both pause in hitting the other and instead swung their chairs around to see the boys clear the landing.

Antonio immediately veered over to take stock of the paper swan collection covering Jay’s desk. “This is what you’ve been doing while we’ve been chasing down your guy?”

“Well,” Evie folded her arms, Adam mirroring her pose straight after, “you left us behind. I would have happily joined the chase, but somebody said I had to stay here to babysit Adam.”

“Hey, no, I’m here babysitting you,” Adam protested.

Jay chuckled while sitting down and gazing at the army of swans in front of him. “She was definitely babysitting you, Adam. Am I allowed to get rid of these?”

“I hate you guys.” Adam turned back to his own desk.

“What’s with the origami?” Voight stopped to look at them too. Evie wouldn’t have guessed that sticky note swans would have been enough to pause everybody in their mad case rush. 

Evie spun in her borrowed chair while Antonio gave her a look that said to give it back. “Babysitting is boring. Also, no, you are not allowed to get rid of them.”

Jay sighed and refrained from sweeping the notes into the garbage. “Don’t you want to know if we got your guy?”

“Obviously you got him, or you’d all be grumpy right now. Who gets to question him? Can I watch?”

“Atwater is, and yes.”

Evie shot up and walked to the stairs with Voight calling after her. “Do not interact with him!”

“Fine!” Working with Intelligence was such a pain at times, with all these rules about not working cases where there was a personal connection. With Evie, many of her cases had a personal connection. That’s what happened when you had a background like hers. It was also why she loved having the job that she had, where those rules didn’t apply to her. But now she was constantly being pulled in by Intelligence to help them with every other case and that meant playing by their rules to a certain extent. Alright, she wouldn’t interact with Jared. She’d just skip out altogether and work her own angle.

A hand grabbed her shoulder from behind and Evie just managed to not elbow the person in the face. “Jay! Seriously?”

“Sorry.” Jay didn’t look sorry at all. “This is not the way to the interrogation rooms.”

“I know that.”

Jay was still holding her arm so she couldn’t leave. “Where are you going? If you leave now I’m going to throw away all your birds.”

“Wow, what a threat. I’m shaking.” Evie pulled her arm away. “Voight is not going to let me do anything. So, I’m going to follow up with some other things and now that you’ve got Jared, it should be fine to let me out.”

Jay looked at her, clearly torn. “I guess I just missed you. Text me if you need backup.”

“If I need backup, I’ll use people who don’t answer to someone else,” Evie said meaningfully, backing away. “But you can text me if you feel like letting me back on the case. I’m here to help.”

“Yeah,” Jay nodded disbelievingly. “Uh huh. Get out of here.” He rolled his eyes once and headed back upstairs.

Evie rolled her eyes too even though he couldn’t see her. What a waste of the day so far. It was time she got some actual work done.

—

“Of all the idiots in Intelligence, I generally consider you to be less of one,” Evie snapped, still holding Antonio against the wall. “I expect this from Adam and occasionally from Jay, but you? Tony, you weren’t even trying to be stealthy.” Evie pushed her hair out of her face with one hand, the other gripping Antonio’s shirt tightly. 

For his part, Antonio didn’t try to escape, but let Evie yell at him for following her instead.

“I have a job that doesn’t involve you, you know. And I’m trying to do it since you decided that even though I know more about Jared than whatever you can find in his email or call history that it would be better for the case if I just didn’t participate. So, fine, whatever, you guys don’t need me to do your job, you’d been doing it just fine before we ever met, just like I’d been doing mine.”

“You planning on letting go of me any time soon?” Antonio raised his hands in surrender. Evie released his shirt and moved, letting him slide away from her. “You’ve been on edge all day. I was worried about you.”

“Voight didn’t send you to fetch me?”

“I don’t think he where you are as long as you’re not ‘interfering.’ Besides, you’re right. You have your own job to do. Anything I can help with?”

Evie ran a hand through her hair, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment as she calmed herself down. Antonio didn’t deserve the sharpness she usually reserved for Voight and other nosy customers. “There’s a pub on Edwards Street called The Wayfarer’s. Do you know it?”

Antonio seemed no worse for wear as he straightened his jacket absently. “Doesn’t ring a bell. Why?”

“It’s mine.”

“Okay.” Antonio sounded unsurprised. Evie realized that they must all be pretty used to her unpredictability at this point and something like this was just too banal to bother getting worked up about. “That where you’re headed now?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.” Antonio fell into step beside her. “So what’s the deal about this place? It’s not where all top gangbangers hang out like they’re not trying to kill each other, is it?”

Evie shot him a look sideways, taken aback by his shrewdness. Then, when he just looked back at her questioningly, it became apparent that he’d just made a very accurate guess.

Antonio caught on. “You’re not serious. You have a pub where people who would normally kill each other on sight just chill like they don’t hate each other? How the hell do you manage that?”

“I have rules,” Evie shrugged. “If they don’t follow the rules, they get warnings. Get enough warnings, you get banned from the premises. It’s a little Switzerland, a no man’s land for kids in trouble, people who need favors, informants and the like. People go there when they’re trying to get out of the city or when they’re trying to negotiate a trade. It’s also a place where you volunteer information or help, nobody is going to coerce it from you. Same for everybody, unless you break the rules.”

The expression of pure skepticism on Antonio’s face was the typical response from anybody she ever told about the place. It had be experienced to be believed. Sure, it wasn’t always quiet. Somebody was always willing to break a rule or destroy some property, but overall, it had been a success. Evie was proud of the place, of the haven it had become for so many. Nobody liked when cops came sniffing around, of course, even though they knew that Evie worked for the law and was seen with cops often. It was just harder to convince someone that their secrets and safety were safe with people who had higher allegiances.

“You’re going to want to hide your badge.”

Antonio did so without immediate comment. Evie appreciated it. She knew there would be questions later - there always were - but Antonio at least could hold himself back until an appropriate opportunity. Adam, Jay and even Kevin tended to just ask their questions upfront, something that drove Evie a little mad.

“Halstead didn’t throw away your birds,” Antonio said suddenly, while they waited to cross a street. “Adam wouldn’t let him, also.”

Evie’s brows raised first in surprise, then in wonder and then because she couldn’t help the smile on her face. “I don’t care if he throws away my sticky note swans,” Evie said, laughing. “I won’t be offended.”

“You know Adam loves to get offended on your behalf.”

Evie groaned a little, still chortling. “He does. He’s killing me.”

“Evie,” Antonio said, stopping short before finishing whatever the rest of that thought was.

She hummed, listening.

He held up a single hand, like he was expecting an outburst. “Don’t kill me for asking.”

“I will not kill you for asking a question, Tony.”

“Are you really okay? After yesterday, I mean. And look, I know that you’ve been through some stuff, but I’ve seen a few different sides of you and you’re not made of stone. Maybe you’ve been through this before, but it’s never a bad idea to just take a step back and talk to someone. I know if it were me, I’d hate to hear this, but I’d be grateful someone cared enough to say it when I needed to hear it. And I’m not gonna tell you to do anything, ‘cause I know that wouldn’t work, but if you ever need to talk, I’m here for it. That was more than I was gonna say,” Antonio said, a rueful chuckle making him duck his head for a second. “Just tell me: are you okay?” He looked at her so earnestly that Evie couldn’t be mad at him for mentioning it.

She smiled, a softness for the detective overcoming her usual amount of frustration when someone tried to get her to talk, about anything. “I’m okay.”

“Okay,” Antonio echoed, his smile just as soft. “Just wanted to be sure.”

“Thanks,” Evie reached out to squeeze his hand. 

“Anytime,” he promised, squeezing back. “Is this it?”

Evie nodded as they stopped in front of The Wayfarer’s. “Come see my stomping grounds.”

Antonio squared his shoulders like he was preparing for a fight. “This ought to be good.”

Rolling her eyes, Evie opened the door. “And Jay says I’m dramatic.”


	2. The Wayfarer's

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now it's going to be three chapters, because I needed a little more time before Evie is willing to talk about the whole "killing people" thing with the Intelligence crew.

The Wayfarer’s smelled like wood and wine. Evie loved it. The lighting was dim, warm, and the walls were paneled a rich cherry. Large lounges sprawled out on either side of the entry hall, but Evie took them straight through to a desk further down. The man behind it was polishing an antique pistol, his scruffy, gray beard obscuring his face until he look up. Instead of a greeting, he simply nodded and pulled out a notebook, setting it down on the desk in front of them. Evie pulling it closer and rifled through a few pages, taking note of the names listed. Antonio stood beside her, looking around without saying anything, waiting for her to make the first move. Again, Evie felt grateful for his ability to utilize patience and timing.

“Hey, Marty,” Evie pointed at one of the names as she spoke. “I though the Williams brothers weren’t in town?”

“Came back for the Raynor funeral.” Marty’s voice was just as rough as his appearance. “No drunken antics, so we’re good there.”

Evie nodded, setting the notebook back down. “Where’s Cade? I need to ask him some questions.”

Marty peered up at the two of them under bushy eyebrows. “In the back, cataloging. Is this about the Dalton kid?”

“That’s right.” Evie flashed Marty a quick smile, tapping the desk in thanks before heading around the corner and following that hallway down to the end, opening the last door on the right. Antonio followed her into the room where a young man was scribbling in a book with crates of glass bottles stacked around him. The room expanded past the shelves behind Cade, but Evie wasn’t there to ask Cade about the stock.

“Hey.”

Cade looked up briefly, nodded and returned to work. Evie shut the door behind Antonio and cleared her throat. “Since when are you so industrious about your work?”

“Since I figure I might not have a job very soon?” Cade still didn’t look at her as he talked, choosing instead to focus on the task at hand.

“Cade, I need to ask you some questions and I need you to give me honest answers.”

“Yeah? Who’s your friend?”

“He’s my friend.” Evie stuck her hands in her pockets, shrugging. Cade copied her, right down to the unimpressed expression he pulled. “Fine, this is-” Evie wrinkled her nose at Antonio who gave her his best “ you do what you want” face. Turning back to Cade, Evie fought back a smile as she finished, “This is Kingbird.”

“Are you serious? What is with you and birds? And when do I get to be one?”

“So are you mocking my choice in nicknames or wishing you were cool enough to qualify?” Evie grinned.

Cade shook his head. “I don’t know. Whatever. Nice to meet you, Kingbird. Go ahead, ask your questions. I don’t know how much help I’m gonna be. I wasn’t with Jared last night. Maybe I should’ve been. I might’ve been able to stop him.”

“Or you might be dead,” Evie pointed out. “The ‘what-ifs’ aren’t important. What is important is finding out who’s really calling the shots.”

“Jared still runs with the Wheelhouse group. He’s been bringing in the girls.”

“We know that,” Antonio spoke up for the first time. “What we don’t know who in the Wheelhouse decided to go from drug running to calculated murder.”

Cade leaned against the edge of the table, running a hand through his hair nervously. “I don’t know who could authorize that.”

“Give us a middle man, anybody.”

“Where is Jared in all this? Did he really kill that girl?” Cade said it like he already knew the answer.

“We can’t talk about that with you.” Evie said, not unkindly. “Unless you know something about it.”

Cade folded his arms. “I told you, I wasn’t with him. I was here; Marty can vouch for me.”

Evie stepped closer, demanding his full attention. “That’s not the question here, Cade. We want to know who could’ve put him up to this. Give us names.”

“I’ve only got one name: Murtagh.”

Evie immediately changed her expression, warning bells going off like crazy. Blood pumped through her heart up to her brain, colorful spots flickering at the edges of her vision for a moment. “He was out of town.” Even to her own ears it sounded feeble and afraid. Evie straightened her back, tightened her jaw. She refused to appear afraid in front of a subordinate or an equal. Fear was good for keeping you alive in disasters, but in the calm before the storm, fear was the last thing Evie needed to be feeling.

Cade didn’t appear to have caught on to her quick change in temper. His hands rubbed up and down his jeans in a nervous tick. “Yeah, and I don’t know if he’s back for sure, but he’s still in the game. Jared wouldn’t shut up about him, about how much he admired the guy. And there was his contact, ‘Blue,’ but we know how many of those there are. Just once I wanna find a guy who goes by ‘Orange.’”

Evie couldn’t find it in herself to smile at that. Murtagh had been out of her sight range for the past several weeks, her sparrows not giving her anything that even hinted at him being back. It was bad news all around if he was, and even if he wasn’t, Murtagh was perfectly capable of running things from a distance. Evie worried her lower lip as she considered the possibilities surrounding Murtagh’s potential return. It was Antonio’s hand on her arm that brought her attention back to the present.

A shuffling sound brought her head up to see Cade standing straight. “Look, give me an hour. I’ll make a couple calls, check in with some people who might know something.”

“If none of my sparrows know something,” Evie began tersely before stopping herself. “No, yeah, go ahead. Text me when you’ve got something.”

Cade touched her shoulder briefly as he head out, but Evie had already closed herself off from feeling anything besides a strategic calm.

Antonio blew out a long breath when they were alone. “I have questions.”

Evie nodded, leading them back down the hallway. “Yeah. I know. Let’s get a drink. You can ask what you want.”

—

A hot cup of tea could soothe an abundance of worries, but as Evie sipped morosely at her chai latte, the worry she was feeling only seemed to grow. Antonio watched her, eyes sharp and focused like he was drilling into her head to read her thoughts before she knew them. “Ask your questions,” Evie said, not looking up.

“First, why Kingbird?”

“I like them. Thought it suited you. Like Cade said, I like birds.”

“What are you?”

“I’m Evie.” She drew on the tabletop with a finger. “Certain people call me certain things. I have a lot of names.”

“Okay,” Antonio said like he’d pursue the issue later, which was typical for him. “Next, the Williams brothers?”

“What about ‘em?”

“The Williams brothers that like to go around stealing cars and blowing them up while intoxicated?”

“Yep.”

Antonio tapped his own fingers on the table in that absent, torn way he had when he wanted to go deeper but it was hard to know what was more important at the time to go deeper about. “Can I trust that you’ll be following up on them?”

“I’m a little busy to bother with car bombs, but I will have people deal with them, yes.” Evie gulped at her latte, wishing it was still hot enough to burn on the way down. She didn’t like the way her emotions were getting ahead of her. She wasn’t like this. After everything she’d been through with so many demons of the past cropping up to give her hell, Evie hated that her emotional control was mostly limited to how she viewed threats to herself. When a danger kept popping back in to say hello to innocent after she’d failed to curb it, well, then her emotions became dangers also.

“Fine.” Antonio sounded unhappy but Evie dismissed it as emotion of the moment. The two of them were very much alike in that sense. Neither was much bothered by the other saying things in spite or distaste because they knew that it was borne out of temporary emotional instability rather than genuine anger toward the other. “How about this Cade guy? He used run with the Wheelhouse?”

“Yeah, casually, or as casually as you can get with this sort of thing. He was mostly responsible in being a front. When I met him, he was trying to not get involved any deeper even though he was pressured to do so.”

“So you just talked him into working for you instead?”

“Basically.” Evie met Antonio’s gaze of suspicion with a small smile. “I may also have bought out his debt.”

“How much was that?”

Evie folded her arms and settled back in her chair, pointedly silent.

Antonio wasn’t fazed. “Look, we’re all more than a little curious to know how you’re always “buying people out” to get them out of a bad spot. You drive a regular car, wear regular clothes and never talk like you come from money, but then you drop these little hints and it’s driving us all a little crazy, you know?”

“We’ve known each other not even three months, Tony. You’re lucky I even let you meet my people so often.”

“Well, that’s because you trust me, trust us, right?”

Evie kept her eyes on him while she formulated an answer to that. Sure, she trusted them to do their jobs and to be good people, but there was a lot that she wouldn’t trust them with all the same. Trust had layers and she’d peeled back very little of herself so far. Saying no would be a lie and Evie wouldn’t lie to Antonio. She might refuse to give up information, but she wouldn’t lie. “I trust you.”

Antonio sighed, looking away. Even with only his profile to go on, Evie knew what he was thinking. When Antonio was in the company of people he trusted, he let his emotions hang in the air and wasn’t ashamed of them. Evie could feel his disappointment in her reluctance to share more with him. Still, when he turned back, his expression showed understanding and patience and was absent of pity. That was something Evie appreciated more than intrusive questions. Pity was like a knife; it broke any trust that had developed. Antonio had never pitied her.

“One more question.”

“Shoot.”

They shared a short, silent exchange about word choice before Antonio asked, “Will Jared turn on Murtagh?”

Evie didn’t even have to think about it. “No. Murtagh, he kind of saved Jared a few years ago. Granted, he trapped him in this lifestyle and tricked him into doing things he never would have, but before that, Jared was lost. Murtagh gave him a purpose. A really shitty one,” Evie chuckled mirthlessly, “but Jared feels like he owes Murtagh everything. He won’t flip.”

“He’s gonna go away for a long time.”

“I know.”

Antonio was watching her again, still without pity. His tone was more curious than anything else. “You care about him, don’t you?”

“I care about all of them, Tony. Doesn’t mean that I won’t take sides. Jared dug his own grave and he’ll have to lie in it. Save who you can, but if you can’t, don’t.” Evie met Antonio’s eyes one more time. “Because you can’t save them all and everybody gets to make their own choices. I don’t want to see any of them go down, but I don’t get to decide that. They do.”

“That’s smart.”

“Yeah. It sucks, too.”

“It does,” Antonio replied, matching her tiredness with a hollow agreement. “But we didn’t get into this job because it was easy. We got into it to do good, right?”

Evie rubbed at eyes so she didn’t have to see the gentle way he was regarding her. “Right.” She stood up decisively. “Let’s go do some. And then tonight some real drinks, since you vetoed them earlier.”

“We’re working! You usually drink while working?”

“Of course not.” Evie kept a straight face. “I just like keeping you on your toes.” She led them out of The Wayfarer’s with Antonio grumbling behind her. 

“Oh, you don’t ever have to worry about that.”


End file.
